CP&DR - Articles

Landmark Preservation Backers Gain Cal Supremes Review

Jul 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 07 Jul 1999

The California Supreme Court will decide the constitutionality of a 1994 law that allows religious organizations to exempt themselves from local historic preservation laws. The court agreed to take the case of East Bay Local Development Corp. v. State of California, 69 Cal.App.4th 1033 (1999), in which the Third District Court of Appeal ruled that the exemption for religious groups did not violate the federal and state constitutional ban on establishing religion. Historic preservation advoc...

State Tries to Halt Local Bond Sale

Jul 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 07 Jul 1999

Treasurer Phil Angelides and Attorney General Bill Lockyer filed papers in San Bernardino County Superior Court to halt a planned $15 million bond sale by two Central Valley cities. The bonds would finance a housing development 300 miles away in San Bernardino County. Angelides and Lockyer filed an answer to a validation action submitted by the Rancho Lucerne Valley Public Financing Authority. The Superior Court will now conduct a trail to determine if the bond sale can go forward. Waterford, a 6,60...

State Oficials Focus on Local Finance; But ‘Fix' May be Complicated

Jul 1, 1999

Featured Articles, Paul Shigley, Vol. 14 No. 07 Jul 1999

The complex financial relationships among taxpayers, local governments and the state is receiving more study than at any time since the 1978 passage of Proposition 13. But "fixing" local government finance is turning out to be exceedingly complex and may require the approval of voters. Lawmakers threw a couple hundred million dollars worth of bones to local government with the $81 billion 1999-2000 state budget. But many people have their eyes focused on a state constitutional amendment that co...

Santa Margarita Watershed Planners Learn Lessons

Jul 1, 1999

Environment Watch, Paul Shigley, Vol. 14 No. 07 Jul 1999

Did L.A. Overbid at Job Auction?

Jun 1, 1999

Deals, Morris Newman, Vol. 14 No. 06 Jun 1999

The gavel came down last year on the greatest job auction of all time: The State of Kentucky agreed to give Willamette Industries up to $8.8 million in tax credits for each new job the company would provide in the City of Hawesville. As it turned out Willamette created 105 jobs instead of the required 15, so the subsidy was only $1.26 million per job. In that light, the $35 million subsidy approved last month by the Los Angeles City Council to the developer of the Playa Vista development seems l...

Rare Habitat, Sprawl-Threat Pose Challenges to UC Merced

Jun 1, 1999

Environment Watch, Paul Shigley, Vol. 14 No. 06 Jun 1999, William Fulton

Vice President Al Gore has promised to speed environmental review of the proposed University of California campus near Merced. Ironically, the likely "Smart Growth" candidate for president in 2000 has sided with a project proposed on rangeland outside Merced's earlier-adopted urban growth boundaries which contains habitat for endangered species. The campus and "university community" would rise on the western edge of a large vernal pool grassland, which is home to fairy shrimp — a federally listed enda...

Burbank Airport Expansion Remains In Holding Pattern

Jun 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Public Development, Vol. 14 No. 06 Jun 1999

The City of Burbank, which has vigorously fought a proposed Burbank Airport expansion, won a major victory when the Second District Court of Appeal ruled the Airport Authority must receive approval from the city before proceeding with a new terminal. In a ruling delivered May 5 and ordered published on May 20, a unanimous three-judge panel said the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority must submit its land use plans for city approval, and must get the city's approval to condemn land for the proj...

Despite SB 50, Concerns Linger Over School Impact Fees; Some Cities Continue Charging More Than State-Allowed Maximum

Jun 1, 1999

Featured Articles, Paul Shigley, Vol. 14 No. 06 Jun 1999

The long-running feud over school impact fees was supposedly settled with passage of last year's SB 50 and subsequent approval by voters of Proposition 1A, a $9.2 billion school construction and rehabilitation bond. Some city and school officials, however, continue to argue that schools need more money from developers than allowed by SB 50, and a few cities appear openly defiant of the law. In Livermore, for example, homebuilders still pay more than double the SB 50 cap of $1.93 per square foot as par...

Second EIR for Landfill Satisfies Appeals Court

Jun 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 06 Jun 1999

The Fourth District Court of Appeal has overturned a trial judge's ruling that environmental review of the proposed Eagle Mountain landfill in Riverside County was inadequate. The additional review was conducted under a court order that found fault with the previous environmental work on the project. The Eagle Mountain project would convert a former Kaiser Steel iron-ore mine into a landfill of 2,200 acres with the capacity of accepting up to 20,000 tons of waste per day for more than a century. Howe...

Transportation: Agency May Not Alter Voter-Approved Route

Jun 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 06 Jun 1999

Alameda County transportation officials cannot change the route of a new highway to be funded by a county sales tax without returning to the county's voters for approval, the First District Court of Appeal has ruled. The ruling overturned a decision by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Henry E. Needham Jr. which granted summary judgment to the Alameda County Transportation Authority in the case. The First District remanded the case to Superior Court for a new decision on a citizen group's re...

Water:

Jun 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Legal Digest, Vol. 14 No. 06 Jun 1999

A federal district court judge — not a Nevada state court — has jurisdiction in a water rights dispute even though the dispute involves decisions of the Nevada State Engineer, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. The decision is the second Ninth Circuit ruling in the last six months stemming from disputes over water allocation between federal and local governments in Churchill County, Nevada, east of Reno. The ruling emerged after a series of "dueling injunctions" in federal and state co...

Getting Beyond a Ctitical Mass

Jun 1, 1999

Stephen Svete, Trends, Vol. 14 No. 06 Jun 1999

They come with Spandex and attitude. And they come with an agenda no less ambitious than to change urban transportation. They are adherents to the merry prankster of grassroots planning movements — Critical Mass. Massers have a simple modus operandi: (1) organize mass bicycle rides once a month, (2) ride through the city, sharing travel lanes with cars, (3) demonstrate that bicyclists have road rights, too. Like other anarchist-oriented movements, Critical Mass boasts no central organizatio...

Revised CEQA Guidelines Have Few Significant Impacts So Far

Jun 1, 1999

Featured Articles, Paul Shigley, Vol. 14 No. 06 Jun 1999

Although new guidelines for implementing the California Environmental Quality Act went into effect in February — the first major overhaul in 13 years — no one is suggesting they have wrought a revolution. Nevertheless, the Davis Administration has vowed at least to review the changes made during the final months of Pete Wilson's second term. Several years of haggling among planners, attorneys, environmentalists, developers and state officials resulted in revisions to the CEQA guidelines issued by...

City Hall Joins Migration to Downtown San Jose

Jun 1, 1999

Paul Shigley, Public Development, San Jose, Vol. 14 No. 06 Jun 1999

Once the butt of many jokes, downtown San Jose has become an increasingly popular location. Among the latest to indicate interest in a downtown office tower is the city itself, which proposes building a $214 million Civic Center on the eastern edge of downtown. The city has completed an environmental impact report, and the City Council was expected on June 1 to approve the EIR, a new redevelopment area, a housing relocation plan, and a financing program. City officials hope the project will solve the ...